The ABC's of a Special Relationship
by Tabii
Summary: Arthur and Alfred have a long history...of course they'll have something for every letter of the alphabet! Idea taken from LadyNightRunner's "Letter of the Law", a really amazing RenoxTseng FF7 fic. I couldn't resist the challenge.


**A** is for Alfred and Arthur. It is for America and the Atlantic Ocean, which Arthur routinely crosses almost every Autumn. It is for adoration and airplanes. It is for always**, **which is how long Alfred claims to have loved Arthur.

**B **is for Boston, which Arthur still can't visit without feeling a little bitter. It is for baseball, which Arthur loves to watch Alfred play, even if the sport in and of itself is a little slow. It is for bunches of buttercups that Arthur has so carefully preserved since Alfred was no more than knee-high, and bouquets of roses when Alfred knows he's messed up. It is for blue eyes as big as the sky.

**C **is for colony and for country, because secretly Arthur will always think of Alfred as both. It is Christmas time, which they both love and spend together every year since WWII ended. C is also for the children Arthur so desperately wants to take in, but doesn't trust himself enough to care for.

**D **is for the dogs that Alfred always watches in the window of the pet shop, and for "dorky" which he used once (and only once) to describe Arthur's favorite sweater vest.

**E **is for England and for emerald eyes. It is for enormous eye brows that surprisingly act as erogenous zones for Arthur. It is for the errors they have both made, and are ready to put behind them as they move ever forwards. E is for embroidered jeans, gloves, scarves and even socks once, when Arthur doesn't know what to do with his nervous energy and exercise when Alfred doesn't know what to do with his.

**F** is for forgiveness, something that Alfred, bless him, has in spades but something Arthur is a tad stingier with with. It is for Alfred's mysterious middle initial ("Freedom," he once told Arthur in a moment of openness).

**G **for all the guilt they still carry; Alfred more so. G is for green grapes, which is Arthur won't eat and for the goose down comforter and blankets they bought for their bed, along with a gossamer canopy. It is for gray days spent inside with a good mug of hot chocolate, and Alfred's collection of goofy movies. And of course, G is for "Git", said with a small smile when Arthur is in a good mood, and with a scowl when he is being 'grumpy'.

**H** is for health and happiness, which they both drink to when the mood seems right. It is for heaven and haven, which Arthur knows he has found, and not at all for hell, which he thought for sometime that he was condemned to. H is also for _heartless_ and _heathen_ and _horrible father_, words that have been hurled at each other in moments ofhot-headedness, and still hang in the air when the tension between them is high.

**I **is for inventions, the wonderful things Alfred makes in his basement when he just needs some alone-time. I is for 'Iggy' when Alfred is feeling cuddly and the half-hearted retort of 'Idiot' which is no longer an insult. It is for injuries that make them who they are, and for individual-sized pudding cups- the best comfort food when either of them are feeling particularly lonely.

**J** is for jokes: The ones that go over Alfred's head, and the ones that Arthur finds crude, and the ones that you'd just have to be in the family to understand.

**K **is for Kansas, located somewhere around Alfred's right hip, a place Arthur has found to be very ticklish.

**L **is for (as cliché as it is) love. It is for brotherly love and romantic love and let us not forget lust. It is for _loud, _and Arthur will lay all the blame there on Alfred, but Alfred knows under the right circumstances, Arthur can be just as loud (if not more so) than he. L is also for laughter and light, things Arthur has always liked about Alfred.

**M **is for the muttered complaints of "Mother Hen" when Arthur makes a fuss over Alfred's clothes or habits. M is for milk drunk from Alfred's old tin cup every morning and for money, which he constantly worries over. It is for hot mulled cider on drizzly fall evenings.

**N **is for "No, I have no idea where your blasted nose harp is! Now will you get back in the bleeding bed?!"

**O **is for over-compensation when Alfred isn't feeling his oh-so-heroic self. It is opening the broom closet at a meeting and finding the two nations doing that 'special kind of hug' that only adults get to do (Peter maintains that there was nothing better to do, so why not do a bit of exploring until they acknowledged him, right?) and it is owing plenty of cash and apologies to the hotel (and the other guests) when Alfred gets a bit over-excited in showing Arthur how much he missed him.

**P** is for the epic debates of Pirates vs. Pilots they have, that always turns from playful banter, to heated arguments, to some of the best role play sex either of them have ever had.

**Q **is for 'QWERTY', the only password Arthur can ever remember and for quarters, in nice, neat rolls or else hidden under couch cushions and refrigerators.

**R **is for Redcoat and rebel and revolution and rock-and-roll. It is for red and white roses on Arthur's birthday, and it is the rings they give each other in a very private ceremony in a little rural church, not as nations, but as men.

**S **is for swordplay, something Arthur is quite skilled at (Centuries of relying on it to save you life will do that to a nation, he reminds Alfred). S is for sunrises that Alfred likes to watch, but sunsets make him surprisingly melancholy. It is the sepia tone of old photographs and singing in the shower and Arthur's sentimentality over stupid things, like snow boots and schoolwork over two centuries old. S is for secrets shared and unshared and for Alfred's repertoire of slight-of-hand tricks.

**T **is for tea and for taxes and for tastefully avoiding topics that are bound to open old hurts, when really, they've done their best to get on with their lives.

**U** is for Union Jack, which Alfred flies along with Old Glory whenever Arthur is in the states. It is for underwear, scattered on the bedroom floor after a night when they couldn't bring themselves to slow down just a little, and for untied shoelaces- usually on Alfred's favorite sneakers- which Arthur reties in a double knot with a sigh. The only problem is that Alfred hasn't learned how to un-knot Arthur's handy work.

**V **is for Arthur's violin. It surprises Alfred that the smaller nation can play so well, but after reading a few volumes of Sherlock Holmes, it is less of a surprise. He likes to watch Arthur in the evening, when Arthur thinks he's not in the house. If Roderick can express his emotions with a piano, then Arthur can write _verses _on his violin.

**W **is for the "what if" game they play when it's the wrong kind of quiet. W is worry whenever they watch the nightly news, each wondering when the other will take a turn for the worse. Most of all, it is "Welcome home. Would you like something to eat?"

**X **is the unknown. It excites Arthur and terrifies Alfred more than a little, because "If you don't know, then you can't be prepared and heroes are always prepared and Arthur what if something and happens and I can't…I can't…" X is also the cross Arthur makes across his chest when he replies: "You'll be just fine, Al…cross my heart."

**Y **is for Arthur's collection of Yeats poetry under his bed, and for Yankee. Y is for all the years spent apart, never gathering the courage to say what they really meant.

**Z **is for zealots who say that two men together is wrong, and for the zig-zag cut Arthur gave one particularly violent young man before he could smash a beer bottle on the back of Alfred's head. It is zombie movies and it is Alfred begging Matthew to let him have one ride on the Zamboni after the hockey game is over. It is…it is the faint sounds of Alfred's snores in the bed next to Arthur as the latter takes the time to make his lover's birthday present.

* * *

A/N: Hope you like…some of these were really hard…


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